Time Runs Out
by LucasGreenX23
Summary: Is the future truly set in stone? Dark Dan has won. With most of Earth's heroes off world, Dan has begun to make the world his own once more. As the Titans fight to prevent this unknown evil lurking on the horizon, Danny must battle both himself and his own failing psyche. Friendships will end. Lines will be crossed and many will die, as our heroes stand against an uncertain fate.
1. Setting the World on Fire

**Setting the World on Fire**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own the rights to Danny Phantom or Teen Titans.**

The Spectre Speeder rocketed through the sky, its mighty engines roared like thunder as the green flames hurled the large metal ironclad through the sky...

Danny sat lifeless at the controls, his eyes were red and stung, but he couldn't cry, he'd run out of tears over an hour ago. He was empty, a shell of the person he was this morning... How? How could everything go so wrong in the space of one day?

His world had crumbled; what was he supposed to do now? He couldn't return home, if he returned to the burnt smoldering wreck that was his home, all his things had been destroyed and if he laid his eyes on the twisted corpses of his parents, he'd probably lose whatever remained of his sanity, not to mention he'd be endangering the rest of the town if he came back.

No, as of now he had no home…

He left them there, he just up and left them there. The bodies of his parents were still back there amid the mass of shattered brick and jagged burning metal.

How? How could he have missed something so obvious? How could Clockwork?

Dan never needed to cheat on the test. He had the stolen time medallion. Fused the damn thing into his chest, and left the bodies of his best friends in the alley behind the Nasty Burger… he didn't even get a chance to say goodbye. Dan just shot the two in the back. Ghost rays, pointblank through the back of the head.

At least they didn't feel pain… or at least that's what he hoped.

The restaurant explosion later had removed the need for the police to identify the bodies. When the entire city-block when up in a blazing inferno, only a charred PDA and two shattered skeletons remained. Both reduced to mere numbers in a rising death toll. The authorities had been so preoccupied with tackling the blaze and rescuing the injured, that no-one had been available when Dan came knocking at his own front door.

Danny had arrived back though time just soon enough to see his parents dead on the floor; and Jazz tossed head first into the Ghost Zone.

Though it had been less than an hour ago, the sound of Dan's maniacal laughter still rang though his head, the look of triumph of his smug face as he set the Ghost Zone portal to overload. Danny was too late.

So Danny did the only thing he could think to do…

He Ran.

Didn't even have time to take anything with him. As the Spectre Speeder rocketed out of the launch bay in the backyard, the last sight Danny would ever have of his childhood home, had been the Ghost Zone portal expanding out through the ground before the whole thing collapsed in on itself, literally swallowing up the entire lab as well as the foundations to the house.

All that remained was a large pile of bricks and mortar inside a giant hole. And that was it. Dan had won… and Danny was alone.

Dan was here; ready to take Danny's life. Whatever mistakes he might have made in his own timeline were null and void. Dan didn't need to grow into his role, he was already here, the sum total of Danny's greatest failure and nightmare given form. A nightmare of his own making.  
Clockwork couldn't stand against him. Not whilst the time medallion remained imbedded in his chest. And with Dan's power… the Ghost Zone wouldn't stand a chance. Danny couldn't even send the ghosts a warning. Unlike Dan, he couldn't make his own portals.

"I'll bet Superman doesn't have to deal with this crap!" said Danny slamming his fist down on the control panel, which really didn't amount to much. Danny felt like a drained battery, it was physically painful to lift his arms, his left arm especially. It had been only an hour, and yet each agonizing minute seemed determined to drag out as long as possible. Danny's chest really hurt. He could feel a shooting pain going up through his left arm.

At that exact same moment his phone vibrated in his pocket, someone was calling him, most probably the police... Hesitantly he pressed the answer button and put the phone to his ear

"Hello" said Danny, his voice raspy and sore

"..."

"Hello" said Danny again

 _"... CAN DANNY PHANTOM COME OUT TO PLAY_? _"_ Came a sharp strange voice which matched Danny's almost perfectly

Danny froze, this was Danny Fenton's phone, no one knew he was Danny Phantom except his now deceased family and friends; Danny hastily checked his phone, it was Sam's number...

" _A childish move I must admit, stealing the phone off a dead girl's corpse. But what can I say? I thought I'd indulge myself, after all, your only young once (Chuckle)"_

"DAN! You deranged psycho! I swear to whatever God's are out there, I'll… I'll…" A deep chuckle stopped him dead in his tracks.

" _You'll do what?! This is it, it's over Daniel and you've lost! Clockwork has shown his hand, gambled all and surrendered the world to me; And so long as I have the amulet, he can't cheat me out of my final victory."_

"Either he'll find a way or I will! (Gasp) As long as I'm here I can stop you! And if I can't, others will!" Danny grasped at his chest; it felt like his heart was trying to escape his body.

" _Oh Daniel… Let me show you what you're missing out on right as we speak…"_

 **XXX**

The World was gone. Danny's surroundings vanished, swallowed by inky black smoke and shadow.

Everything was gone, the Spectre Speeder, the skyline, everything!

Danny was standing in pitch black, he could hear nothing, he could see nothing, and yet... He felt a presence, something hiding in the dark...

Suddenly everything changed, Danny stood unable to move in the middle of Amity Park, It was burning to the ground, The flames rose so high it were as if the sky itself were aflame... Buildings crumbled and fell, crushing civilians under flaming heaps of burnt wood and scorched metal... The screams of the trapped and dying filled the air!

"Beautiful is it not!" came a voice from behind Danny's back

Danny desperately tried to turn his head, his arms, anything, but nothing worked, even his powers failed him.

"Why are you doing this? How…" Said Danny struggling to make a sentence, Danny was experiencing a sharp stabbing pain in his chest.

"… am I doing this? Simple. We two exist in a time when there should only be one of us. The universe is treating us as if we were one, one being, one mind. A sort of hive mind if you will. I know everything you know. All I have to do is look." Dan's voice whispered behind Danny.

"Answer the question! Why this!" Said Danny, the pain in his chest getting worse by the second.

"This town has always stood as a blight on my new world. A festering zit on the face of my undead utopia. By eradicating this town, I ensure that the future will indeed change. To a future where I reign supreme and where I have complete immunity from time itself."

"What?" Asked Danny, his voice now barely a whisper. "I thought you wanted your future to stay the same."

"Hehehe… I did. But then I realized something. If I keep the future on its intended path, then your past self will inevitably be sent to my future just like before. And this dance will happen all over again. But not this time."

Dan vanished and then materialized right in front of Danny's eyes; His burning head was level with his, one of its sharp clawed hands wrapped around Danny's throat...

"Clockwork has trapped himself Daniel! He can't send you forward to stop me, if I'm all that's left of you in the present. Now the world is my canvas, to shape or destroy however I choose. And as for you…" a low chuckle escaped Dan's pale blue lips.

"Your time is up!"

It was at that moment that Danny's heart gave out...

 **XXX**

Danny fell back landing in a heap on the cold metal floor of the Spectre Speeder, around him red sirens blared as the Fenton Family's now driverless vehicle shot towards the ground at a fantastic speed...

To this day, Danny wasn't sure what it was that happened next, but something inside of him chose to take action... Danny's body glowed a bright green as his clothes changed from a dull human attire, to his alter ego Danny Phantom jumpsuit; his body became still, his eyes glowed green and a force field of the brightest green surrounded his body like a coffin and as the ground rushed to meet his vehicle and he slowly faded out of consciousness, he last thoughts were of his ride home from Vlad's castle with his sister, all those months ago...

That... Was when the Speeder collided with the earth.

…

Meanwhile at Sam's house, smoke billowed out through the doors and windows, all of which had been literally blown open; From what the police and fire department could gather, the fire had originated from one of the upstairs bedrooms, from there the fire had almost instantaneously spread through the house before engulfing a gas pipe line and blowing the whole house to kingdom come, not to mention causing severe damage to the neighbouring abodes.

The entire Manson family had been killed in the aforementioned explosion, leaving nothing behind but three charred and twisted skeletons; it was a terrible sight to behold, if it weren't for the fact that Miss Samantha Manson had phoned a friend shortly before the explosion, at least according to the phone found by the police on scene, one wouldn't have been able to tell that the skeletons were human.  
The police checked Samantha's phone records to find who she'd called, unfortunately when the records arrived all the information about the receiver had been wiped clean, they had the same luck when they listened to a recording of the call and it was pretty much just white noise followed by the sound of the house burning down.

But what puzzled the police most of all about the case, besides the fact that it was the third fire within a week, was that when the forensic investigators finally recovered the mangled skeletons of Mr and Mrs Manson they noticed some peculiar burn markings around their upper spinel area, if you didn't know any better you'd think they'd been strangled, with fire.

The police launched a full investigation into the mysterious arsons as well as their links to the missing Daniel and Jasmine Fenton… unfortunately the case was never solved, in the following week the entire town had been engulfed in flame following an explosion at the Axiom power plant, the cause of which remained unknown; Eventually the Justice League had been called in to investigate, an entire North American town being wiped off the face of the map was more than enough reason to get involved, and yet even with the world's greatest detective on board, the case would for many years, remain open.

However, unknown to most everyone else involved, there was one other performing his own investigation. One who didn't anticipate just how personal the case was about to become.

 **XXX**

How fast did time go by?  
Danny Fenton did not know…

Always awake, every agonizing second of every day.

Seconds became Minutes

Minutes became Hours

Hours became Days

Days into Weeks

Weeks into Months

Months into Years

After the first six months he'd stopped counting, he didn't really see much point, after the first year he decided to give changing back a try, but after a few months of failure that too became tiresome; He'd tried, Oh how he'd tried to simply die, to stop breathing, to face the turmoil of the cold dead afterlife, but his body wouldn't let him…  
The smashed up wreck that was once the Spectre Speeder had become his tomb, almost completely buried in the forest floor and over time vines covered in thorns had leached their way through the metal into the inside of the wreck, almost completely covering his gloving green coffin…

After Two years Danny had pretty much guessed every detail of how he'd ended up this way; The shock of his family's death plus the ever present fear of Dan lurking out there somewhere in the dark had resulted in a stress induced heart attack. His ghost self at that point had taken control, it had created an impenetrable barrier of ghost energy to not only shield him from the impact of the crash but also repair his heart to full working condition, unfortunately it also resulted in his body becoming completely paralyzed while his brain was still active, still able to hear, smell, taste and feel everything around him, yet unable to sleep.  
Like a patient having surgery who suddenly develops Anesthetic Awareness and can feel themselves being worked on but can't alert the medical staff.  
To Danny, this was a fate worse than death, His body was somehow kept running by his ghost half, when he was like this he didn't require food, water or other things that normal people required, but that was part of the problem, he missed the taste of food and drink, he missed school and his friends, and of course he missed his family most of all. Eventually madness began to take hold, every few days he'd see visions of fire, screams of innocents crying out for someone to help. In time his years of silence had been replaced with never-ending screams. Where once Danny had wished for an end to his miserable loneliness, he now begged to stop the torment, to silence the screams and give him back his quiet. The universe is rarely so kind.  
When the time came that it was almost his third year of being in this waking comatose state, Danny was left to ponder his life up until that faithful day when he should have just come home, sure he'd done a lot of good, so much so that he'd began to wonder what he'd done to deserve punishment of this magnitude, did he really deserve to be a prisoner in his own body, doomed to fade from the memories of everyone he once knew… It was then that his thoughts turned back to his sister, his guardian if you will, she'd always been there for him whether it was a story at bedtime back when he was a small boy, walking him home from preschool when his parents were so busy with work that they'd forgotten about him or even when he'd told her about his powers, she'd always been so supportive of him and he'd never had that chance to say thanks.

" _Jazz, can you hear me? I don't know if you can" thought Danny_

" _I'm sorry if I let you down… I tried my best, but in the end I wasn't the hero you thought I was! And now I'm paying the ultimate price for my failure, I'm gonna spend the rest of eternity cold, depressed and alone… Unable to die! If you can hear me, just know that I love you and I'm sorry I never appreciated your help until it was too late"_

If Danny had been able to cry at that moment he would have, who knows maybe he was and he just didn't know it, he couldn't tell either way…

…

Three years had gone by, three years since the destruction of Amity Park, which had been completely erased from the map; since then fires had been cropping up all across the United States of America forming a line leading straight from Amity Park across the states, houses, buildings, hotels and apartments all set aflame sometimes it would be small towns and in other incidences it was entire cities, there were always small fires but they all ended the same way, the whole town or city engulfed in flame and ash, metaphorically burning a scar across America _,_ the most recent city to fall was the city of Denver in Colorado which despite the cold climate, fell like a worn out match.

Coincidently those superheroes that could and were investigating this nationwide attack had been called away and drafted into the Justice League.  
Alien androids known as the Manhunters, had declared earth their next target for universal cleansing. Political figures had been impersonated, nations attacked, the entirety of the United Nations was in a panic, and the news from earth's Green Lantern corpsmen had reported a mass of Manhunter Starships on route to earth as well as neighboring inhabited worlds. To combat this threat, the Justice League had opted to meet this fleet head on before it could reach earth and then maybe, just maybe, take the battle to the Manhunter home world.

With the chaos of the Manhunter invasion, and the majority of earth's heroes off world, it was easy for those in power to simply blame the arson attack on the invaders themselves, if only to appease the masses.  
However to the leader of the Teen Titans, Robin, this had been the wakeup call he'd been waiting for, for several years he'd noticed the string of fires stringing up across his homeland, why he felt that they were part of something bigger he didn't know.

All he knew was that the level of destruction was getting worse as this unknown villain blazed a trail across the U.S of A, it was becoming more and more clear that whoever or whatever was doing this was after something or someone. It was at times like this, when he was alone in his evidence room, his papers, newspaper clippings and findings all plastered to the walls, that he felt like clutching his sides and rolling around in a fit of hysterical laughter, the likes of which the Joker would have been proud of, but unfortunately for the boy wonder he knew in his gut that something terrible was on the horizon, he just didn't know what.

This new ever present danger had become Robins driving force, his motivator to push on, sure his team mattered to him, they mattered allot; but to some people he was still just Batman's Sidekick! Always Batman's sidekick, never the one who helped defeated Trigon or Brother Blood or even Slade… No, he was determined to discover the source of these 'attacks' if you will and put an end to this mayhem, which so far had gone completely over the heads of most involved in the investigation, if he could solve this mystery, it would set him apart from the title of sidekick, he'd be a hero in his own right; Entire towns and cities were burning down, leaving behind an all too clear trail from what Robin believed to be the source, the burnt out ruins of Amity Park.  
Three years ago, shortly after the defeat of The Brotherhood of Evil at the hands of the Teen Titans, Amity Park had gone up in flames and before the Justice League could even begin to raise suspicions and point fingers, The Manhunters (Humanoid Androids who once served the Green Lantern Corps) began their attack on earth, any and all damage including the fires had been blamed on the Manhunters, and while Robin hated the infernal androids there was no denying that they couldn't have been directly responsible, No… the fires were defiantly magic, almost Supernatural in origin, when he'd first begun questioning several survivors of the disasters they'd all say the same thing, before the fire broke out they saw a haunting green light, a light that left a person feeling like a cold empty shell, devoid of all emotion.

Right now, Robin had delved so deep into his work that he didn't even notice Kid Flash vibrate through the wall behind him…

"YO ROBIN!" yelled Kid Flash

Robin's natural instincts kicked in… In the form of his legs propelling his across his work table and into a pile of what had five seconds ago been neatly organized books; after swallowing his pride and deciding that he'd have to admit that Kid Flash tricked him once again, Robin threw a number of books off his person and stood up to face his laughing like a madman friend.

"WALLY! How many times do I have to tell you not to sneak up on me?" said Robin, clearly not sharing the Speedsters sense of humor.

"Oh come on, it's all in good fun, besides you gotta admit, I got you good" mocked Kid Flash

The now Seventeen year old Kid Flash had been recruited to the main branch of the Teen Titans after persuading Jinx to switch sides from the Hive to the Titans, not to mention having a member with super speed made scouting missions, black ops and takeout collecting a breeze.

Kid Flash, AKA Wally West, nephew of the current Flash, Barry Allen, stopped his mocking of his team leader to marvel at the many different newspaper clippings and books scattered around the black wallpapered room.

"Wow, you sure do have a… (AHEM) 'Interesting Hobby'" said Wally, quickly taking notice that all the information in the room involved starting fires and magic and even a list of fire based villains.  
"If I didn't know any better I'd swear you were gonna become a serial… uh… fire starting guy" said Wally trying to think of the right word.

"Arsonist?" said Robin, restacking his books.

"Exactly, knew I'd figure it out eventually" Said Wally grinning from ear to ear.

"Yeah well for your information I'm not obsessed, I've simply been investigating a few… hundred, fire related instances over the last three years, and I think they're linked" said Robin, realizing oh too soon that his words weren't helping his case at all.

"Well with all this stuff involving the Manhunters going on, a few random fires haven't exactly been at the top of my worries list" said Wally, taking notice of a large map of North America on the wall, with a red string and a series of thin thumb tacks guiding it in a long line across the states.

"A few fires? Boston is gone! You may think I'm crazy but I know I'm on to something… take a look at this" said Robin taking the map from the wall and placing it neatly on the table

"The first 'attack' or 'accident' as you call it, took place here in what used to be Amity Park and from there all these places from small towns to big cities have all gone up in smoke and flame" said Robin tracing the string with his finger "I'm telling you someone or something out there is causing this… they could be looking for something or maybe they're trying to send us a message or…"

"Or maybe a traveling clown who juggles fire just can't catch a break" said Wally nudging Robin in the side in a joking manner.

"Oh would you knock it off, THIS IS SERIOUS! People are dying out there, and most of the qualified heroes who could do something aren't even on the planet right now. I have to do something; I have to stop this person! I have… to prove I'm not just the 'Big Bat's Sidekick… that I matter" said Robin, infuriated at his friends mocking of his work.

"OK chillax… Wait, did you say it was your chance to matter?" said Wally dumfounded by his friend and leaders self-doubt.

Robin said nothing, choosing instead to go back to his work and just ignore the Speedster all together.

"Well that's ridiculous, of course you matter! What? You think just cause you're a side kick that means you don't matter?" said Wally getting not response from his team leader.

"Well that's crazy of course you matter! I'm a side kick, does that mean I don't matter?" asked Wally getting annoyed by his friend's arrogance.

"… Get out of here Wally! And keep what you've seen here to yourself!" Said Robin, ignoring his friend's words, choosing instead to return to his project.

"… Fine Dude, but just remember, you lead this team, you started it all… and if you don't think you matter after all this teams been through… then I feel sorry for you bro." said Wally before disappearing in the blink of an eye.

Now Robin was left, standing alone with nothing but his work and equipment at his side… Batman matters, Robin had always told himself that, but this was pretty much how Batman spent most of his free time, alone in a dark place with nothing but his work and plans for company… I shook Robin to his core to think that he was becoming more and more like his master…  
"If this is what it's like to matter… Then maybe I'm making a big mistake" Robin said to himself slowly, falling back into his chair and resting his head in his hands.

…

Danny had spent the previous year contemplating his place in the universe, how It worked and how he fitted in with the way the universe works… but this, like most of his thoughts, had ultimately lead to his near constant thoughts of failure, of being forgotten, and now as he spoke tried his hardest to apologize, to make his pain end, he could almost swear his mind had been irrevocably damaged, having finally gone over the deep end and leaving his sanity behind; After exactly three years of complete consciousness inside his own paralyzed body, Danny was hearing voices…

Well technically it was a voice, but a hauntingly familiar voice none the less…

" _Jazz?" thought Danny_

" _Danny" echoed the voice of Danny's presumably deceased sister_

" _Jazz? Is that you?" thought Danny as hard as he could_

" _I'm here little brother" came Jazz's voice, softer and easier to hear inside his head_

" _Jazz, is that really you? Or have I just gone crazy from loneliness?"_

" _What do you believe?" echoed Jazz's voice; Danny didn't like the question… mainly because he didn't like the answer_

" _Danny, I have something to tell you… Everyone you ever loved, we ever loved is gone! But you have to persevere… Even if a great loneliness overtakes you, bear through it and become someone who brings comfort to others." spoke Jazz softly and sweetly_

" _Is that?" said Danny_

" _That's… my last wish!"_

"… _No… No Jazz, don't leave, you're all I have in the world now, you can't go." thought Danny, waves of despair washing over his entire being, drowning himself in it._

 _"I have to Danny. To save our world I have to go. Never forget that I believe in you_. _Never forget dear brother… Miracles don't happen without wishes… Love you little brother, Goodbye."_

 _Jazz's voice became more and more difficult to hear until it was just Danny alone with his thoughts_

Suddenly a loud ungodly voice filled Danny's ears and suddenly, as if Danny were a coma patient, waking up for the first time in who knows how long, Danny's eyes shot open to reveal a bright white light…

"DANNY PHANTOM… LIVE!"

 **A/N: Next time: We'll see Robin face this own mortality and the fact that he's becoming just like Batman, Danny coming to terms with his sanity and his eventual meeting with the Titans, till next time please read and review. Seriously it helps the writing process so much when you do.**


	2. Viva Las Vegas

**Viva Las Vegas**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own the rights to Danny Phantom or Teen Titans**

 **Oh and FYI all of the characters in my opinion are 17-18 years old, Danny is 17 but turns 18 later on…**

 _Time has a way of changing things, for better or for worse? For Danny Phantom it was most definitely worse!_

 _In six seconds Danny Fenton had decided to fly his friends into a rip in time and space._

 _In five minutes Danny Fenton had flown home, just in time to see his parents, sister and all his worldly possessions wiped out._

 _In the space of four hours Danny Fenton, superhero, friend and beloved son/ brother… had lost everything._

 _In three years Danny Fenton lay in a state of suspended animation, completely alert, unable to speak or yell or cry or die._

 _Yes, time has a way of changing things alright, because exactly three years, four hours, five minutes and six seconds ago, the sweet little boy that once played catch in the park with his dad, who shared sodas with his mom, who got tucked into bed by his sister… died… leaving nothing more than the twisted shell of a man; A man that time forgot but had allot of fun unscrewing along the way._

Like waking up from a bad nightmare all of Danny's senses and motor functions switched on, launching the half ghost bolt upright… taking note of his surroundings he cited numerous long green vines covered in thorns and burnt out chunks of metal and wires scorched and twisted from the impact, leaving a rusted hulk of metal which oddly resembled what his parents laboratory had looked like, only this beat-up shuttle looked nicer… under any other circumstances Danny would have uttered a laugh… but now, not even a smirk could form on his parched pale lips.  
Danny looked down at his hands; they looked slightly bigger, ever so slightly bigger, like ever so slightly bigger that you'd never have noticed them growing, not unlike the rest of his person… Danny turned his attention to the wall behind him, the one wall that wasn't bent out of shape, most probably because it was the opposite wall to the one that took the brunt of the impact; embedded into the wall above the row of seats was a mirror, which oddly enough was the only thing in the crippled behemoth that wasn't broken, yes it was cracked in areas but Danny could still see himself just fine… sadly he didn't like who he saw staring back.

 **TTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT**

A red and yellow streak of colour rippled and faded in the blink of an eye through Titan Tower; as usual Wally West, being the self-appointed born and bred Keystone City party animal that he was, had stayed up until five in the morning drinking Dr Pepper and eating M&M's at terminal velocity, playing video games with four controls at once, watching B-movies and attempting to convince Starfire to put her tongue in his mouth… all of which had resulted in either a slap on the back, an aspirin in a glass of water and/or punch in the face.  
Needless to say the large quantities of sugar, coupled with the overuse of super speed and a punch that could probably cripple Superman, had caused Wally to pass out on the kitchen floor with an empty bottle of 7UP in his hand and a colander on his head… now here he was, ten in the morning, a headache that refused to go away (like a fat kid next to an ice-cream truck), he'd had to shower and change all in super speed and according to his Teen Titans communicator, if he didn't enter the mission room in the next ten seconds, Robin would tie him to a searchlight and invent 'The Flash Signal'… now that he thought about it, Wally was left incredibly puzzled…

…  
… what was he doing with a bottle 7UP?

…Oh well no time to think about it now… with an extra burst of speed Wally shot up the stairs, down a hallway and through two large metal sliding doors, which thanks to his vibrating skills, he was able to phase through without him having to enter a twenty five digit code number and fingerprint scan first.  
Wally stopped vibrating and stood in awe, marveling at the large room that he was seeing for the first time, it was a big round room with a circular table in the middle surrounded by chairs and in the middle of the table was a holographic image manipulator, primarily used for mission briefings and keeping track of criminals or in Beast Boys case, watching Batman fight crime in Gotham from really, really far away. Sometimes having access to the Justice League satellite had its advantages.  
The Teen Titans were seated around the table leaving one seat spare for Kid Flash; when Wally had taken his seat, Robin's eyes shifted towards him, like a hawk that's caught sight a fearful vole.

"Hey Wally, dude you made it." grinned Beast Boy looking over the back of his chair

"You're late!"

"Am not! I have four whole seconds to spare" Wally grinned and shot Robin a look of 'So there Mr so-called leader', but robin wasn't impressed

"No! You're an hour fifty nine minutes and fifty six seconds late"

"What are you talking about?" Wally checked his Titan communicator and was more than a little bit embarrassed to see, at some point the previous night; he'd switched it to 'Stopwatch' mode. Whoops.

Wally blushed a deep shade of red and grinned, chuckling nervously he went quiet, fiddling with his communicator to mask his humiliation.

"Idiot" muttered Robin under his breath, swiftly he pulled out a remote from his pocket and clicked a small green button, at the same time the small dome shaped object in the centre of the table opened and from inside a green light shone out, forming shapes, letter and numbers in mid-air, forming holographic newspaper articles, one video news report and a series of incredibly boring looking spread sheets.

"Alright, now that Kid Flash is FINALLY here… we can get down to business"

"Ha, 'get down to business' five minutes using the new equipment and he thinks he king of Wall Street" joked Cyborg high fiving Beast Boy and Kid Flash

"I find it most 'attractive' the way Robin speaks, 'tehe'" giggled Starfire

"Ahehe, thank you Starfire" said Robin, fanning his face to make his cheeks stop glowing

"Anyway, as you all know, The Justice League is away in outer space dealing with the Manhunters! Because of this crisis crime is up seventy-five per cent, you don't need glasses to see that's cause for alarm! In the wake of this problem I've begun tracking several villains marked 'High Risk', should they try to cause anymore chaos then there already is; These villains include, The Joker, Poison Ivy, Calendar Man, Killer Croc and Scarecrow." as Robin spoke, several holographic images appeared in the middle of the table

"If that weren't bad enough, two extremely influential crime figures within Gotham recently vanished from Black Gate Penitentiary; Cult Leader 'Deacon Blackfire', no relation to Starfire by the way. And former scientist turned super-nut 'John Dolan, AKA: The Elemental Man'. One minute they were both in their cells, the next, Poof, gone! No signs of a breakout. Just there one second, gone the next."

"Wait-a-minute those are all your old villains, what about the others? Superman's gotta lot of heavy hitters too ya know. What? Did they opt for a weeks' vacation till the big guy comes back?" said Beast Boy

"Superboy and Supergirl have Metropolis well in hand, besides unlike those villains, the ones I've got to deal with have gone dark. Oracle and her Birds of Prey have been tearing the city apart trying to find them… but so far, nothing." said Robin

"Umm, look Robin, it's not that we don't wanna help… it's just that we live in Jump-City California and Gotham City is wwaaaaayyyyy on the other side of the country, to get there we'd have to fly, we don't have nearly enough fuel for two trips and the area above Boston is a no-fly zone so that's taking us even further out of our way." said Cyborg pulling out a globe from who knows where.

"Well lucky for you, our destination is allot closer." said Robin using his remote to bring-up a series of file in front of the group "Las Vegas Nevada, in recent months a number of cats, dogs and more alarmingly, people, have vanished. Not to mention, a few people have reported seeing a hulking individual in rags skulking around the back alleys and less populated areas at night."

"… And you believe these cases are intertwined?" asked Raven

"Exactly, my guess, this is the work of Killer Croc." said Robin revealing numerous images of a large reptilian humanoid (like a large hulking man covered in scales with sharp teeth, claws and large red eyes) "He's an old enemy of mine, broke out of Arkham Asylum during the last Manhunter attack on Gotham, hasn't been seen since."

"But what's a… Giant Crocodile Man, doing in the middle of the desert?" asked Beast Boy

"I agree, this doesn't match Croc's usual M.O." said Kid Flash, arms crossed

"If I know Croc, he's trying to get as far away from Gotham as possible, before Batman returns."

"'If' he comes back, Robin" said Raven, matter of fact-ly.

Robin cast his gaze at the floor, unsure of how to respond, truth of the matter was if Batman didn't come back, he'd probably have to take Batman's place, it was a part of the oath he'd taken when Bruce Wayne had adopted him. But Robin didn't exactly want to take Batman's place; the plan was for him to become his own hero by joining the Teen Titans and distance himself from the role of sidekick.

"Harsh Raven, jeez." Said Beast Boy, breaking the awkward silence.

"… I-its fine, anyway from my experience with Croc in the past, the old Vegas river is are our best bet for finding him, he'll likely hide there to avoid the sun during the day, it's a large, dried up and immensely long concrete channel, full of long winding pipes leading to the water treatment plant."

"But why would Killer Croc abduct people and pets? Is he gonna ransom them off for money?" said Best Boy.

"No, if I know Croc, he'll be using them both for food." said Robin bluntly.

"YOU MEAN HE'S A CANNIBAL!" yelled Beast Boy as he jumped out of his seat.

"Yes! And that's why we're leaving right away! Prepare the jet Cyborg, next stop Vegas!"

 **DPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDP**

Danny looked at his reflection with sadness in his eyes; Danny looked like a taller and slightly more muscular version of himself, his hair was still whiter then winter snow and his eyes shone bright green, even his logo was in the same place, but inside he'd changed. He didn't feel like himself anymore; then again he'd stopped feeling like himself three years ago.

Although death at this point seemed like a blessing, being awake for three years had left him with one question really playing on his mind, where was he? And why had nobody found him in that time? Danny summoned all his courage and forced himself intangible, as quickly as he could, unwilling to use his ghost powers for longer than absolutely necessary Danny flew straight up, through the charred metal and was shocked to discover that the entire vessel had been completely buried, quite deep as it happens in thick brown mud.  
Reaching the surface, the daylight struck Danny like a vampire out during the day, except for Danny it felt amazing, like a brief hug from a long lost friend, how he'd missed the sun, Danny dropped out of intangible and fell to his knees, not caring that he was kneeling in mud he looked up, his eyes growing wet and stinging from the suns gentle rays.

The Half-Ghost must have stayed that way for a good thirty minutes before finally rising to his feet and wiping his eyes with his sleeve, looking around Danny realized that he was surrounded by desert and cacti, by some strange twist of fate as it were, Danny's ship had landed right in the middle of a small oasis, the water and trees were clearly destroyed in the impact and the surrounding area clearly showed signs of an crash landing, such as burnt ground and mud where water once flowed.  
When one experiences the trauma of imminent to lingering death, you start to appreciate every second your alive, all the little things in life once taken for granted, while others would put a bullet through their heads after such an ordeal, Danny at that moment was in-between the two, he was walking a knife-edge so to speak and could fall either way, but for the time being he was keeping his balance. It wouldn't last however. Such incidences rarely do.

Unsure of what to do or where to go from here, Danny resolved to just walk in a random direction until he reached some form of civilization. A City, a town, even a dusty old shack would do… Danny looked up and observed the position of the sun, noting its setting in the distance he decided to walk west, thinking it best to walk in the opposite direction of his former home. (Amity Park formerly stood in the east.)

A slight breeze blew past his face; it felt nice, familiar and almost nostalgic…

' _Danny'_ came a cold whisper from the distance.

Danny jerked his head to the right, casting his gaze as far across the sandy plains as possible, despite his fractured psyche, he recognized that voice from somewhere, or rather, sometime.

' _You shouldn't have tried to ignore me Danny!'_ another whisper drifted from the same direction.

"Where are you?" yelled Danny, surprised by the sound of his own voice after not speaking for all this time.

' _So this is where you've been hiding. I must say, I expected more!_ ' that was when Danny spotted the source of the voice, Danny's soul grew cold, there in the distance, like a speck on the horizon stood a pitch black two dimensional figure that resembled Danny's shadow come to life only slightly different, it stood taller, its hair flailed about like flames in the wind and a great black cape blew behind it; Danny recognized who or what it was immediately.

"No… it's not possible, how are you…"

' _Here? Well, technically speaking… I'm not. Think of me as more of an, oh what's the word? Ah yes... Mental Projection. You see, throughout the last three years during your apparent exile. I've had ample time to experiment with these new abilities of mind. Or should I say, Ours!'_

"We are not the same!" yelled Danny, taking the past three years into account; Danny was unconvinced by even his own words.

' _Given how you abandoned the human cockroaches that infest this world, whilst I burnt away their hives in the hundreds, I'm inclined to agree! And there-in lies the problem!'_

"…I'm not afraid to die, Dan! Not anymore!"

' _Commendable, but don't interrupt! I must say, it's a surprise to see you again. But after what I've glimpsed within your psychosis, I suppose I should have anticipated this.'_

"This what? What happened to me?! And what have you done?!" said Danny, a deep chuckled echoed across the chilled desert sand.

' _And spoil the fun? No I don't think so. We share a hive mind Daniel, should one of us require information pertaining to the other, it is but a thought away. All you have to do is look. But I warn you, you may not like what you find!'_

"There's no way I'm looking inside that diseased brain of yours! Just get to your point and get out of my head!"

' _Give what little remains of your life to me Daniel! I'm offering you the chance to willing surrender your life to my person. Stop trying to escape your future, submit to me and meet your end on your own terms, with some degree of dignity left intact.'_

A Cheshire cat like grin spread across Danny's face.

"Are you serious? You? You're making deals now! (Chuckle) I thought you were supposed to be this, all-powerful world conqueror! But this? I guess the last few years have made you soft… Old man!"

Danny regretted his words almost immediately. Without warning a sharp stabbing pain flared inside his head. Doubling forward to his knees. Thick bubbling green ooze erupted from Daniel's lips, decorating the desert floor.

' _Don't test my rapidly diminishing patience Daniel! I can hurt you without even being there!'_

Danny fell to his side, clutching his head in his hands.

' _Run away and I will hunt you down! As for finding help, (Chuckle) well you've seen what becomes of the Ghost Zone denizens in my time. And as for this worlds so-called 'Heroes' I've destroyed them all once. What's to stop me from doing it again?'_

"Gahh… Me!" said Danny, whipping a hand over his mouth.

' _And what? Where can you go boy? And who would take you in? You disappeared the same day your home town was burned to the ground. Your mind is broken. Your identity would set off alarm bells for the FBI, CIA and the GIW… You're surrounded on all sides Daniel! You can either die with some dignity or bleeding out on a surgical table.'_

' _Think it over! And remember… I'm listening.'_

The shadow then faded away with the passing wind, leaving Danny standing on the spot looking down at his quivering hands.

Danny punched his right fist into his left hand and shot into the air like a rocket, stopping in the middle of the sky he screamed "PHANTOM! I will never be like you, I don't care if I die, one way or another, I'M TAKING YOU WITH ME!" thunder cracked in the darkening skies on the horizon. Danny's mind was a mess, he'd gone insane from loneliness, he'd gone sane again, he'd spoken to his dead sister and now… he knew his control was fading. How long would it be? Before he himself snapped under pressure.

His psychotic future self, the GIW and apparently the American government… Fate was laughing at Danny right now, laughing hard.

 **TTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT**

The Titans T-Jet landed on top of an old parking complex near the Las Vegas Strip, given all the bright lights, music and the growing darkness as the sun set in the distance, it was the perfect cover.

"Ok Titans remember, this is not a vacation, I have a few leads we can follow so we'll have to split into teams of two… Beast Boy, What are you wearing?" said Robin

Beast Boy had jumped out of the T-Jet wearing a blue and purple Hawaiian shirt, brown shorts, sandals, black sunglasses and a grey hat "What? What's wrong with my ensemble?"

"Dude, the only way you could look more like a tourist is if you wore a giant foam finger and a shirt that says 'I came to Vegas and all I got was this lousy shirt'… seriously you look like one of Elvis's groupies." said Cyborg

"Exactly, Killer Croc will never suspect its me." said Beast Boy beaming with pride

"First off Beast Boy he's never seen you before and even if he had, you have green skin and pointy ears, you stick out like Green Lantern at a Batman convention." said Kid Flash

"Bah, everyone's a critic" said Beast Boy sulking

"Focus People, remember, we're here for Croc and nothing else… I'll check the old river with Starfire. Cyborg and Raven, you check the Vegas suburbs and parks, and Beast Boy, I want you and Kid Flash to check the Vegas Strip and Casinos, but let me make this clear, this is not a…" Kid Flash and Beast Boy were already speeding down the stairs. "… Vacation." said Robin peeved

In a matter of hours the sun had gone down and Vegas truly came alive. The lights, the alcohol, the people, it was enough to supercharge the senses and send ones inhibitions packing; A matter of hours was also how long it took Beast Boy and Kid Flash to lose roughly three hundred dollars of the Teen Titans money playing Black-Jack, win back four hundred and fifty playing the quarter slots, drink a disturbing amount of alcohol thanks to fans constantly buying the pair drinks, and the rest of their time in the casinos was reduced to a blur; Although the pairs drunken karaoke duel of 'Final Countdown' did break into the top ten on YouTube.

Meanwhile Robin and Starfire were walking along the concrete basin of the river; it was almost like the race scene out of the movie 'Grease', all along the river channel there were large round pipes twice their size, all of which were blocked by rusty iron bars. Starfire enjoyed her time alone with Robin; it seemed like all he did lately was hold-up in his room doing who knows what, she wish he'd at least let her in once in a while. After all she was his girlfriend, 'tehe' she giggled to herself, she enjoyed referring to herself as Robin's girlfriend, it made her feel special and just that little bit closer to him than other people.

"Umm Robin, may I enquire as to why you would send Beast Boy and Kid Flash to search the bright buildings while you and I walk in this cold and empty river?"

"Because if I know Croc, he'll likely hide in someplace dark and quiet, somewhere normal people would be afraid to go." said Robin, switching on the night-vision function on his mask.

"Oh… Robin, if I may, why don't we do the hanging out anymore?" asked Starfire feeling slightly vulnerable.

"Star, you know I want to, but being the team leader is a tough day job, I never have any free time these days."

"You could always let our friends help. On my home world accepting the assistance of another is far from the mark of shame it is here…" said Starfire.

That struck a nerve, If there was one thing Robin hated, it was being told that he needed help; it brought him back the days where he'd get kidnapped and held over a giant mouse trap or something. Then Batman would have to swoop in and blow his cover to save him. Him - Robin the sidekick.

"What are you saying? That I can't handle this myself? That I need someone to swoop in and save me?" said Robin stopping midstride.

"That is not at all what I…"

"Yes it was! You don't think I can do this one thing myself" said Robin, all feelings of restraint long gone.

Starfire was upset by Robin's temper, but experience with him over their time together had taught her that crying would only make him feel bad, which is the last thing she wanted, instead she opted for the up-close and personal approach…

"Look Starfire, I love You, but when you say I can't even handle the simplest…" again Robin was cut off mid-sentence, this time by the feeling of Starfire's lips on his, an enjoyable and always welcome feeling of joy washed over his person, all his anger and frustration disappeared to a point where Robin began to wonder if Starfire had a power he didn't know about, the power to give joy and expel all other feelings.

"… I love you too. And I was going to say that despite what I have seen on this planet, there is no shame in asking for assistance." said Starfire breaking their kiss.

"Oh my god." said Robin

"I know, I enjoyed it also." said Starfire blushing.

"No not that, look…" said Robin pointing at a large round pipe in the distance, approaching the entrance the couple peered inside along the dark passage, the rusted bars were bent inward and broken, almost as though a rhino had charged head first into the pipe and just kept going.

"This is it… he's definitely here, I know it" said Robin

"Are you sure?" asked Starfire

"Oh yeah" said Robin, his night vision revealing several splatters of a hot red substance leading into the pipe "Call the others quick… we've got him now!"

Within minutes the rest of the Teen Titans had arrived and gathered around the entrance to the tunnel.

"(hiccup) Heeyy G-Guys, guess whattt, me and my bestest buddy Beast Boy got totally wasted on free drinkeys and convinced this Elvis guy to marry usss… (Hahaha)" said a very drunk Kid Flash, who seemed to be struggling to keep his balance.

"Yeppers, but the jokes onnn himmm, cause superheroes can't get married, (hehehe)" slurred an equally drunk Beast Boy

The rest of the ream looked at each other in surprise and embarrassment.

"Uhh, actually you guys, yes they can." said Raven

"Ohhh sure… Wait what?" said Kid Flash

"Yeah, you guys really got married! Congratulations." snickered Cyborg, taking a picture with his built in camera.

"Aww man! Well in that case we're registered in Nevada" said Beast Boy before he fell over.

Raven watched towards the two drunken superheroes that appeared on the verge of spilling their innards all over the ground, and placed her hands on their heads… before the two of them could so much a blink, all the effects of alcohol in their system was gone, aside from minor headaches and no memory of what they had done for the last three hours.

"Oh man, my aching head… how'd we get here?" asked Beast Boy rubbing his head

"I expelled the negative effects of the alcohol from your systems, but your memories are gonna be hazy for a while." said Raven

"Dude, I bet we rocked this place, right?" said Kid Flash bumping fists with Beast Boy

"He he, I gotta lot of things to tell you guys." said Cyborg

"Later! Right now we have to get into position, according to Raven, Killer Croc isn't home. Which means it's the perfect time to set up an ambush." said Robin as he slowly crept into the pipe, followed closely by Starfire, Raven, Cyborg and two other titans with bad headaches.

When the light from outside became too faint, Cyborg switch on his built in light to illuminate the passage ahead. The walls themselves were decorated with animal bones and shards of torn clothing, none of the titans besides Robin had actually seen Killer Croc before, but given that the pipe was higher and wider than Cyborg, they could only imagine what Killer Croc must look like in the flesh.

After about a minute of silent walking, the roaring sound of gushing water could be heard ahead, and sure enough, when the group reached the end of the pipe they were faced with one large round room, a long narrow metal girder extended from the passage in which the Titans stood, reaching all the way to what appeared to be a larger sewage tunnel, the sewer water was running through the tunnel ahead and straight down, as the titans looked down they were shocked to discover a raging torrent of water way down in the darkness forming a whirlpool in the center. If one were to walk along the girder and fall, they'd never be heard of again, on other sides of the room along the round walls were a series of slightly smaller tunnels leading to who knows where, Croc would be too big to use those, he'd never be able to reach them without falling. Above the large round chamber was another out of reach girder and a moss covered stone ceiling. Truly a marvel of stone and concrete architecture.

"Echo" called Beast Boy, barely hearing his echo over the running water.

"Killer Croc must have come in through this pipe knowing that no one would follow him, then when he found that it connected to the sewers, he started abducting people all over the city and dumped the bodies down there." said Robin looking down into the abyss.

"So why decorate the entrance?" asked Raven

"Probably to scare off people like us." said Cyborg

"Now what do we do?" asked Kid Flash

"I have a plan" said Robin "Each of us will hide in one of these smaller pipes that Croc can't get to. Beast Boy you hide up on that beam above the pit, when Croc shows up you get the drop on him. Cyborg before we take our positions I want you to place bright lights in each of the pipes, when Croc comes turn them on and blind him, that's when we attack." said Robin

"Got it" said Cyborg throwing a series of round discs from his chest compartment at the walls which stuck like glue, once in position the Titans took up their hiding places, which was more difficult for Cyborg and Kid Flash who, since they couldn't fly or grapple, had to jump to their pipes from a narrow beam… and finally when everyone was in position, Cyborg shut off his light, leaving the group in the pitch black chamber, with only the sound of crashing water which began to prey on their nerves.

 **DPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDP**

Danny took a long deep breath of the cold Nevada air, he was still shocked to no end when he'd realized he was actually in Las Vegas, Danny had been tempted to turn back into his human self again, but after his ordeal he wasn't willing to let his guard down for a second.  
The last thing he wanted at the moment was to be surrounded by gamblers and drunks. Opting instead to walk along some old dried up concrete river basin. The bright lights were visible even from here, the city center of Vegas was at least a mile away and around the dark area Danny had wondered into, the buildings casting their shadows above the river were tall grey warehouses and office blocks, not exactly the amazing monuments to human potential that stood along the Vegas strip.

Danny wasn't sure what it was about the darkness that gave him comfort, anyone in his position would surely have wanted to be in the most brightly lit place possible, but Danny had reached the assumption long ago that it was simply his ghost side enjoying its natural environment and in a way, that's all Danny was now, a ghost, a relic that time forgot; he had no purpose, no drive, he'd been forced to grow up in one hour and lose his innocence and everything else in the process… it wasn't fair, what did he do to deserve this? He'd done the right thing, that's what! He'd done the right thing and it had gotten his family and friends killed!

Danny violently shock his head, he knew it was Dan playing with his mind again, he was trying to get Danny to fall off the knife, to either end it all or embrace the pain, either way Dan would get what he wants, then the world would pay the price. No matter what, he had to keep control, his fractured mind made both sides of his personality, ghost and human drift apart, this made decision making harder, his judgement was impaired, it left a void in his shared mind, and it was this void through which Dark Dan was beginning to snake his way in.

' _Give up Daniel, You can't hold back forever; your mind is coming apart at the seams, it's only a matter of time before…'_

"I'm not afraid of you Phantom! I'll fight you with every last ounce of strength I have." whispered Danny to himself.

' _Oh Danny, so cynical; can't you feel my presence, affecting every choice you make, everything decision that comes your way? Our connection is truly something special. Face it Danny, a man can't make his own decisions that what does that make you? A slave!'_

"I'm nobodies slave Dan, as long as I can walk and breath, I'm more powerful then you."

' _You still believe your human half makes you superior? It is because of your fractured human mind that you're in this mental state at all. Here you are talking to yourself, you've been awake and unable to move for three years, you went mad and back in that time; so really… how can you be sure that I'm really here? Could it be that this entire situation is merely a manifestation of your imagination?'_ spoke the voice in Danny's head followed by a low pitched chuckle.

Danny had to pause and think, up until now he hadn't stopped to consider if that was a possibility…

' _Who knows, maybe your still insane; Jump down from the tightrope you call a mind Danny, give in to the madness… Believe me it makes our immortality all the more exciting.'_

"I won't be weak… I won't give in."

' _Oh really, well maybe this should give you the shove we need… Who does that figure down there look like to you Danny?'_

Danny's world can blasting back into realism when he spotted a familiar figure down in the basin, it was covered in a vale of darkness, it had something swung over its shoulder that was dripping and the very darkness from this thing was trailing behind it, Danny shook with fright as his watched the figure climb inside a large pipe, a large clawed hand dragging the unmoving thing behind it.

' _Come after me Daniel. I'm waiting!'_

It was then that Danny realized the thing dragging behind it was a person and a dead one at that; Danny knew this was it, it had to be the creature that killed his family, that destroyed his home and attacked his mind, he'd go after it, he had to… he wasn't shaking with fear anymore, he was shaking with anger, this thing hadn't stopped killing to find him, it had continued to kill and ruin lives, but now he'd had enough, he wasn't thinking anymore he was driven my pure primal human hatred. With a burst of speed Danny flew down into the river bed, along the creatures trail and headfirst into the large pipe, Danny's ghost powers allowed him to see in the dark, gliding through the pipe so not to make any noise, he heard running water ahead; Danny stopped in mid-air, the creature had stopped in the middle of this narrow beam above a deep drop, it had started chewing on something, the person it had captured.

Danny was thrown into a blind fury, with a surge of pure adrenalin he shot forward made a grab for the creature…

"Stop right there murderer." yelled Danny flying forward and tearing the dark vale clean off this creatures back, revealing, much to Danny's surprise, not cold fear inducing evil, but a large green scale covered back and when it turned it head, a pair of big red and very angry eyes.

' _Sorry Daniel… I lied. Play nice.'_

"NOW!" came a voice from one side of the chamber, bright lights in all directions sparked into life taking both Danny and this scale covered thing by surprise.

"(AAAARRRRGGGHHH) you dare attack The Croc, I'll rip you in half." roared the currently half blind Killer Croc lunging at Danny.

The light had also shocked Danny, in a mix of both fears and adrenalin Danny forced all of his strength and ghost energy into his right fist, zooming forward it connected with Killer Croc's jaw knocking the creature back; not wasting anytime Danny launched another blow straight into the creature's chest.

 **TTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT**

Not wasting any time, Beast Boy morphed into a gorilla and lept onto Croc's back, forcing Croc into a head lock. Croc's clawed hand swung forward and knocked the previously unseen individual into the side of the chamber wall Looney Tunes style. Cyborg lept out from his hiding place onto the beam, running forward with acrobat precision Cyborg connected his mechanical fist with Crocs face, but thanks to the giant green gorilla on crocs back Croc's right fist gained extra momentum and connected with Cyborgs gut, sending him straight into Raven who herself was about to question the identity of this new team player.

In what appeared to be a state of intense anger, the unknown individual lept forward from the hole he'd made in the wall and slammed his fist straight into Killer Croc's head and then with cat like precision connected his other fist with the gorilla on Croc's back, Beast Boy in Gorilla form fell back from Croc and barely grabbed on to the beam to avoid the fall.

Starfire flew out of the pipe she was hiding in and sent a shower of star bolts directly at Croc, which unfortunately struck Danny at the same time, striking him in the stomach and burning him right arm. Killer Croc grabbed Beast Boy who was now in the form of a Flamingo for some reason, and swung him at Starfire like a hitter with a baseball bat. Starfire flew over Beast Boy and launched a glowing fist directly at Croc's face, almost knocking Croc into the pit, but Killer Croc had a keen sense of balance and swung back.  
Robin took this chance to attack the new figure who'd knocked Beast Boy off Croc and ruined his trap. Robin launched his grapple at the ceiling and swung towards the stranger at a fantastic speed, but somehow the stranger turned intangible and Robin swung straight through. The boy wonder attempted to swing back around at him but instead was met with Killer Crocs fist in his face. Robin's vision blurred, his grip loosened and he fell, straight down into the dark abyss.

"Robin!" yelled Starfire, flying straight down and catching him before he hit the water. In one swift move Starfire threw Robin to Cyborg, and grabbed Killer Croc by the throat. "We are taking this outside, NOW!" Starfire yelled flying straight through the stranger who turned intangible instantly, and flew out the pipe exit dragging a confused Killer Croc and to a lesser extent Beast Boy behind her.

"And the same goes for YOU!" yelled Kid Flash, leaping onto the beam and grabbing the white haired stranger then launching them both outside in a yellow and red streak before he could escape.

Starfire dropped Killer Croc and flew into the air, launching herself straight at the creature, slamming her elbow into its ribs; again and again she repeated this until the beast finally gave it up and collapsed into unconsciousness.

Kid Flash dropped the stranger to the ground and swung a mighty fist into his chin…

 **DPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDP**

Danny fell back as the fist of this red and yellow stranger connected with his jaw knocking him back onto the cold hard concrete… pain, real blood and guts, fist vs. fist, knock'em down pain, God how Danny had missed it, the thrill of a real brawl… The cold night air stung his cuts and burns, reminding him of what it means to be alive.

"Killer Croc is down! Starfire secure Croc, Everyone else divide and conquer on the new target." ordered the black haired guy in the weird red and green costume.

Before Danny could blink he was surrounded on all sides, panic started to kick in again… the voice in his head began to grow louder…

"Easy dude, we don't wanna hurt you" said the odd green imp stepping closer, Danny was seriously freaking out now, not because of the strangers, but because his arms were now moving by themselves

' _They're coming to get you Danny.'_ whispered the voice.

Without warning Danny's left arm fired a ghost beam directly at the imp sending him hurdling through the air.

"BEAST BOY!" yelled the Cyborg.

"Enough talk, cut him down!" yelled the guy with an 'R' on his chest, who was immediately blasted with a beam of intense cold, freezing him to the spot, leaving just his head free.

"Robin! You're gonna pay for that pal!" yelled the Cyborg who's arm immediately morphed into a laser, a blue beam fire out which almost instantly collided with a green blast from Danny's fist, the crossed beams exploded launching Danny in one direction and the Cyborg in the other. Danny's powers cushioned the impact and he instinctively leapt back to his feet, ahead of him a familiar red and yellow streak was charging straight at him, Danny tried to yell out to make them stop, but instead of his voice he fired out a large powerful ghostly wail, the red and yellow kid ran straight for him but was left running on the spot battling the powerful attack head on, before being flung back like a candy wrapper in a tornado.

' _My control is growing; perhaps I won't need those fools I hired after all. GIVE IN! And we'll end these Junior Justice Leaguers together.'_

Suddenly Danny whole world became engulfed in darkness, he tried looking down but he couldn't see his body… In reality the dark haired sorceress had engulfed Danny's head in her dark magic, cutting off his field of vision as well as his air supply, in his panicked state his arms flailed about the place firing ghost beams in all directions. One beam detonated the ice around Robin freeing him from the cold, while another blast hit Starfire in the back.

"Quickly, h-hit him while he's d-d-distracted." said Robin wrapping his cape around himself for warmth

"No, let me handle this!" said Raven closing her eyes.

Danny vision was fading, he could hardly breathe, he could feel himself slowly suffocating…

' _NO, NOT NOW, I WAS SO CLOSE!'_ yelled Dark Dan's voice growing fainter and fainter.

' _Please Stop'_ a new female voice filled Danny's head.

' _My names Raven, I'm with the Teen Titans. I've pushed back the voice in your head for now. I could sense the supernatural influence within you, but if I'm to convince the other of this, I need you to stop resisting. I promise I won't let them hurt you.'_

Mentally, Danny's mind was in shambles but there was something strangely comforting about this girl's voice, something that told him if he sleeps, he'd be safe; Danny gave up and collapsed to the floor, the worried eyes of a violet hair sorceress were the last thing to enter his mind before he fell unconscious.

 **TTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT**

By now the local authorities had arrived and were struggling to load Killer Croc into the back of their armored car, and while Cyborg filled in the paperwork and Starfire searched for Kid Flash with Beast Boy, Robin and Raven stood over the body of the unconscious stranger…

"… It wasn't his fault Robin; I sensed dark forces at work within his mind." said Raven pulling her hood back on.

"That's not my problem, he almost jeopardized the entire mission." said Robin, reaching into the strangers pocket and pulling out a wallet.

"Robin I'm telling you, if anything he needs our help. I'm not sure what it is yet, his mind was too foggy, but I sense that he's carrying a burden, a heavy burden at that, something that no one should have to bare alone." said Raven

Robin pulled an old I.D. out of the wallet and read the front, it read; Danny Fenton, birthdate: June 14th 1994 (that would make him about 17ish now), Hometown: Amity Park… Amity Park! The one place that came up through all of Robin's investigations about the fires, Amity Park was where it started! Robin knew this Danny was hiding something, but he also knew that he'd just found a genuine break in his investigation… and that was when Robin thought up a plan.

"Alright then Raven; it's your call, we'll bring him back with us to the tower for interrogation and for you to "help" if you think it's that important." said Robin

"Thank you Robin, I'll make sure he's stays under control." said Raven

"Good cause anything he does here on out is your responsibility." said Robin walking away.

Raven looked down at the unconscious teen; she couldn't help but think…

'I wonder what brought you here.'

 **A/N: Yawn. Okay that's my next chapter up and done. Thanks for reading this far, anyway you know how it goes at this point. If you liked it, leave a review. Seriously, they're my motivation.**


	3. The Prisoner of Titans Tower

**The Prisoner of Titans Tower**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own the rights to Danny Phantom or Teen Titans.**

 **A/N: Here we go, the next chapter… Wheee…**

Have you ever had that feeling of De-ja-vu? That feeling that you're repeating something you've done before?

Danny awoke to find himself trapped inside a thick metal cylinder with a heavy glass door above him and although he had no idea where he was; once again unable to move, although this time it wasn't his ghost power holding him down, instead his arms and legs were bolted to the back with thick metal braces, as his eyes wondered over his person he noted that he was still in his ghost form. Still that was probably for the best, after everything he'd been through he didn't want to be his vulnerable human self again for quite some time, he had to be alert and on guard at all times, less he bring harm to another innocents life.

Now here he was, held captive by these 'Titans'. At least that's what 'they' called themselves… Danny of course knew a great deal about superheroes, but the Titans were unfamiliar to him. He sparsely recalled hero teams such as 'The Justice Society' from history class, 'The Doom Patrol' and of course 'The Justice League', but the Titans? They were a new one on him, then again he was technically buried alive for three years so could anyone really blame him?

'Looks like we're alone again Daniel; I must say whatever that girl did, it hurt… but no matter, when you finally surrender your mind to me she'll be but the first of many slain by your hand. Maybe I'll have you burn off her skin with a powerful ghost beam, piece by piece, or perhaps not, maybe instead you'll flash freeze her then shatter her into a thousand little pieces.' came that eerily familiar low voice in his head, one the ghost boy was unable to silence.

"Shut up, you can't exist. I'm not you!" whispered Danny.

'Oh aren't I? Well maybe you're right. Maybe I'm just a twisted figment of your broken and damaged mind, something to help you deal with the pain, the suffering, the madness! Or do I exist? The real you who despite your denial, is who you're destined to be! Who knows, maybe I'm both, a mere shard of your twisted personality, a shard that's slowly engulfing your entire being, maybe you can't face what you're turning into, a madman! So YOU MADE ME!' Dark Dan's voice echoed through Danny's mind like bats in a cave.

"No, I was insane once, but I'm fine now, three years is a long time, I got over it." said Danny, a slight whimper in his voice.

'GOT OVER IT! Daniel you know as well as I do that insanity isn't something you get over, frankly I believe this conversation between you and I has been years in the making… Face it Daniel, you need me! We complete each other, like two pieces of the same jigsaw, we connect; I can't exist without you, and let's be honest, with the way things are going, its either embrace the madness that is me and all the power that insanity brings or continue along this tightrope and we'll just see how long it takes you to fall.' Dark Danny's voice grew fainter and fainter until Danny could no longer hear its voice.

"… OK, maybe I am crazy… and maybe I am talking to myself, but I'm not going to give in… Phantom, I swear I'll fight you with everything I have..." whispered Danny, once again feeling the presence of De-ja-vu, he felt like he'd been through all this before.

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Meanwhile aboard the Teen Titans T-Jet.

"Hey Raven, how's our totally loco-in-the-coco prisoner doing?" asked Beast Boy through his headset communicator.

"Still secured in the cargo hold… Hey! He's not our prisoner, we're bringing him back to help him." said Raven.

"Suuuurrreee, that's a great idea… and maybe next week we can all have tea and cookies with The Joker." said Cyborg.

"Be serious Cyborg! I don't know what it is… but something inside me knows that he needs our help, I can't explain what it is, I just know…" said Raven siting back in her chair.

"Yeah well if you ask me, this guy needs a one way ticket straight to Arkham Asylum." said Kid Flash.

"He's not going to Arkham! I have a lot of questions for this guy and they will be answered one way or another, now let's drop the subject." said Robin.

"Ok, but if he steps one foot outta line, I'll turn and swallow him whole." said Beast Boy.

The rest of the trip back was pretty quiet; none of the Titans were in a talkative mood; Raven herself kept replaying the events of the last few hours in her mind… The fight with Killer Croc, the strange newcomer who'd appeared out of nowhere; the hatred she felt radiating from his person was being absorbed by her powers, it were as if she'd had a burning cigarette stubbed out on every part of her body and it still hurt to think about it, she could only imagine what could possibly cause that kind of pain, what could bring out that much hate and rage… Raven wasn't sure why, for all intents and purposes this stranger had brought harm to her friends, and yet here she was going out of her way to help him. This entire situation reeked of magical influence. An unseen third party perhaps? Or could her supernatural inheritance be playing a role?

Finally the T-Jet began to descend towards the Titans Island, steadily the jet landed on a large platform on the western side of the island, once landed the ground beneath the platform opened up lowering the jet into the Titans underground hanger, sealing it once the jet had been lowered.

Once the noise emitted by the jets engines had silenced the capsules opened; Kid Flash was as usual the first one to leave, taking off at a break neck pace in order to avoid any physical labor. Around the back of the jet a large metal ramp lowered to the ground revealing the inside of the cargo hold, which in retrospect was pretty useless since all it held were a few drums of jet fuel and one white haired prisoner bolted inside a cylindrical capsule.

While Cyborg began making preparations to have the jet refueled, rearmed and ready for immediate launch in case of crisis; Raven, Robin, Starfire and Beast Boy surrounded their… as Robin put it, Guest, and discussed what to do with him from there.

"Robin, what are we to do with this… person, now that he is here?"

"Starfire, I need you and Beast Boy to help carry this… whatever he is, to the interrogation room; Raven, I'll need you to distract him with a mental blockade, if he wakes up he might try his little disappearing trick again and the last thing I need is to waste more time chasing ghosts." said Robin.

"Ghosts? That's ridiculous! There's no such thing as ghosts…" said Beast Boy crossing his arms in disbelief.

"Of course there's no such thing, he obviously has superhuman powers, but where he got them is another matter." said Robin.

"Doesn't my being here right now, pretty much throw your 'Ghosts aren't real' theory out the window?" asked Raven, who was promptly ignored.

Starfire took hold of the top of the capsule while Beast Boy morphed into a gorilla and lifted the other end…

 **DPDPDPDPDPDPDPDP**

Once again Danny's world was shaken… literally, the capsule he was in was being moved and not very gracefully for that matter, twice he felt his head hit the back of the capsule because of what sounded like someone dropping his prison, followed by the annoyed sounds of some guy and the high pitched voice of what sounded like some girl.

"Starfire hold that pod properly" a male voice whinnied from outside, Danny tried to see through the glass in front of his face but his breath had steamed up the inside.

"Apologies friend Robin, it is hard to grip such cold metal." sounded a female voice.

'Voices' thought Danny.

'Coming from outside'

'Where I belong!'

Danny took a deep breath; reached down deep and concentrated, although he was still weak from his earlier encounter he was still easily capable of turning his physical being intangible… Suddenly and without warning a thousand volt of pure energy blasted through Danny's system hurting him right down to his core, Danny yelled out it pain and reverted back to his ghostly self, something about this pod gave it the ability to sense when whatever's inside turns intangible.

"Robin, what was that?" spoke the girl voice once again

"Ha, looks like our new friend wants to get out." This time the cocky sounding male spoke, at this point Danny was almost willing to let Dark Danny out, if only to silence the one called Robin… fortunately for Robin however, Danny's world once again became shrouded in darkness, although this time breathing was possible which slightly calmed Danny's already tense nerves, he was however rendered completely paralyzed, unable to feel any part of his body.

"Please, calm down, your mind is like a cracked mirror, if you don't relax it'll shatter and your of no use to anyone if you're incomprehensible." spoke a deeper more calm and collected voice, the same voice he'd heard in his head the last time, one that chased Dan away and gave him space to think.

'Who are you? Why are you holding me prisoner?'

"My name is Raven… I read your mind during the battle, there is a secondary presence inside your head, it has concealed itself within the darkest and damaged recesses of your subconscious, whether it's an outside influence or a twisted creation of your fractured mind is unknown; However, speaking from personal experience, the last thing you want is to face this alone.' echoed Ravens voice.

'You're wasting your time… If you haven't figured it out yet, Raven… I'm beyond help!'

"You let me be the judge of that! In the meantime try to get some rest; Robin wants to have a few words with you." spoke Raven, her soft voice growing fainter.

Danny began to feel light headed, his eyes closed and gradually he faded into his first calm sleep in years.

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After what Danny assumed was a few hours, he awoke with a bright light shining down at him, blinking once or twice his senses gradually returned to him, slowly he realized that he was lying on thin mattress in a cold metal room, on closer inspection the so-called bed was really just a metal plate with a mattress on it, kept horizontal by two chains that connected both ends of the plate to the left wall of the room. On the opposite end of the room was a long mirror that stretched along the right wall, although Danny knew it was really just a front for a two way mirror, slightly behind Danny on the south wall was a door way with a curtain across it which Danny assumed led to a bathroom, and ahead of Danny on the north wall was a solid metal door which clearly led outside, two chairs, a table and to Danny's surprise one black haired guy wearing a mask, cape and a very impatient expression.

"It's about time you woke up… Take a seat, I've got a lot of questions for you." said Robin, the tone of his voice made it sound like less of a request and more a demand.

"Who are you and where am I?" asked Danny, with shaking legs Danny had to use the wall for support when he stood.

"I'd get to your seat quickly if I were you… Danny!" Danny's eyes shot open, as though he'd just taken a machete to the spine.

"How do you know my name?!" said Danny, both fisted planted firmly on the table, he face mere inches from Robins.

Robin simply chuckled, clearly amused by Danny's embarrassing attempt at scare tactics, he'd faced far worse and much scarier foes than this odd ball white haired amateur.

"… If stand up night at the Apollo is over, I'd like for you to take your seat and answer the following questions!"

"Yeah well I have some questions of my own, how do you know who I am? How did I get here? Where is here and why are you so interested in me?"

"I'm the one asking the questions… NOW SIT DOWN!" said Robin raising his voice to a volume that echoed through the room.

Danny knew from his numerous encounters with Walker the ghost warden that ignoring these kinds of demands usually resulted in pain; for now he'd simply back down and bide his time, this Robin character had to slip up sometime and when he did then Danny would get the answers he sought. Doing as he was told, Danny sank back down onto his hard yet oddly comfortable plastic chair, which he soon realized, was welded to the floor.

"That's better, now let's get down to business…" said Robin, placing a small number of brown folders on the table.

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Outside the Interrogation room, looking in through the two way mirror stood Beast Boy and Raven, both had finished their juvenile chores that included doing the dishes, vacuuming, dusting and taking out the trash and were now left with nothing better to do then watch the drama unfold…

"Is it just me or is Robin a little more stressed then usual?" asked Beast Boy who, having noticed Robins venomous attitude of late, was growing concerned.

"I don't want any part of this." said Raven, in a way that made it sound as though she wanted as many people to know as possible.

"Yeah, I know what you mean, that guy with the white hair is a total psycho, if you ask me we should just drop him off at the nearest mad house and be done with him." said Beast Boy who clearly wasn't over the beat down he'd received earlier that day especially after he'd tried to be friendly.

"No, I mean I don't want… THIS! Any of it. This big metal holding cell, Robin's obsessive behavior and… None of this makes sense!" said Raven feeling frustrated over the confusing situation.

"Whoa, take it easy Raven, what's your problem?" asked Beast Boy placing a hand on her shoulder.

"Well… why him? What does this guy need questioning? Why did we have to bring him all the way here and more importantly why does Robin want to keep him here?" asked Raven using Beast Boy to unload all the questions she'd kept for their leader.

"Uhh, well I guess… umm…"

"I mean look at us… we picked this guy up off the street and without telling a soul we've abducted him and now we're holding him prisoner… Look around you Beast Boy, our home and our team, there changing, we're changing… It didn't use to be this way, what happened?" asked Raven feeling miserable after the past nights ordeal.

Beast Boy placed both his hands on her shoulders and looked her in the eyes, "We grew up"

 **DPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDPDP**

Unaware of the events taking place on the other side of the mirror; Robin began to open folders and place them in front of Danny for him to examine their contents, they were mostly just copies of old newspaper clippings from the last three years, but never the less Danny found them fascinating, having spent three years in the dark he wanted to catch up with current events as soon as possible… although most of the articles were nothing but doom and gloom.

"So it says from your birth certificate that you're Danny Fenton, correct?" asked Robin

"You already know I am!" said Danny; he was adamant that Robin's good cop bad cop routine wouldn't work on him.

"I just find it interesting that a search through government records has Danny Fenton listed as a blue eyed, black haired guy who, along with his entire family, disappeared three years ago. And yet here you are. Same height, same features, even the same hair style if these class photos are accurate." said Robin

"Okay, first off Ewww! Secondly, what do you know about me? And why do you have all this?" asked Danny, anger slowly edging its way through his system.

"Well I know that apparently his home town was destroyed by a fire sparked by a freak explosion, according to the witnesses, a Mr and Ms Manson, it was caused by and I quote 'The entire Fenton Family being a group of lunatics who likely blew themselves up dabbling in what they don't understand'" said Robin, taking notice of the white hot rage present on Danny's face.

'A group of lunatics?' Danny knew his old friend Sam's parents hated him, but to mock his dead family was sick even for them.

"You seem angry Danny, touch a nerve did I? Or did I catch on to something your hiding?" said Robin, looking at Danny as though he could read his every thought.

Danny could feel a cold sweat running down his forehead, there was no way Robin could know what happened all those years ago, he'd literally just met the guy.

"You don't know what you're taking about." said Danny, refusing to meet Robin's gaze.

"Oh I do Danny, more then you know… I did a little research while you were out cold, turns out you weren't exactly Mr perfect attendance at school…" said Robin questioningly.

"Yeah so? You gonna give me a detention?" mocked Danny

"So… Way I see it is, at some point little Danny Fenton acquired super powers, then after struggling through the stresses of embarrassing parents and bad grades, he finally snapped, lighting up his hometown and family, then fleeing across the country, in the process dying his hair white and wearing colored lenses, he masqueraded as a superhero to throw everyone off his trail…" said Robin, casting an accusing look at Danny.

Danny fell back in his chair laughing for the first time in ages, a wave of relief washing over his person; it was hysterical really, Robin had no clue about what had really happened to Danny and Danny felt stupid for thinking he might.

"H-Hey what are you laughing about?" yelled Robin, not amused in the slightest

"HEHEHE, Pal you seriously need to get your facts straight… your clearly not much of a detective are you!" mocked Danny, laughing at Robin's once smug face

That comment pushed Robin over the edge, if there was one thing he mated more than being called a sidekick, it was being made a fool of by the very person he was trying to interrogate, it made him feel weak, like he'd made an amateur mistake, the kind Batman would frown upon.

"Oh, you think that's funny huh? Well alright, how about you fill in the blanks for me? You can start by explaining why you've lit up every major city from Amity Park to where we found you!" yelled Robin, grabbing Danny by the front of his suit and shoving a handful of photographs in his face.

Danny's laughter ceased instantly, it were as if his entire being chose at that moment to simply stop a focus all attention on comprehending what he had just heard… 'Every major city… Destroyed?'

"From the look on your face I'd say I've struck a secret goldmine…" said Robin

Danny was in a state of shock, no part of him could seem to grasp what he was seeing and hearing, in front of his very eyes Danny was flipping through photographs and one very disturbing news article… The Photos showed it all, fires engulfing entire city blocks, hundreds of people running for their lives with nowhere to go; it was his worst nightmare being forced on him by a costumed teen that had only the faintest grasp of how serious all of this information truly was… all those people, thousands possibly millions of lives brought to a horrifying conclusion, all because he'd cheated on a test?!

"Killing your family is one thing, but taking the lives of all those people, that's just sick… What the hell would possess you to murder so many innocents? And then just run away… like a coward" said Robin bearing down on Danny, like a crow hovering over a turtle on its back.

All color drained from Danny's face as he read the article… The Headline read 'Amity Park: Hell on Earth' followed by a photograph of the burning rubble and debris that stretched in all directions, chunks of brick and twisted metal covered the ground with blackened skeletons in all manner of positions dotted across the landscape. The article itself read… 'Amity Park Iowa, just north of Davenport and south of Waterloo, once home to thousands of hard working Americans, is now a blackened scar on the face of our country; the once proud city that boasted a popular tourist trade was raised to the ground last night following a series of fires sparked in both industrial and residential areas across the city. From there the fires hit several major underground gas lines turning the city into a living hell, as civilians attempted to flee the city only to become trapped by walls of flame and debris, anyone who wasn't burned alive was suffocate by the intense smoke which could be seen as far away as Cedar Rapids. Questions as to the cause of the disaster have all lead to speculation that the deadly Manhunters that have been plaguing the planet, are at this time the key suspects in this crisis…'

Danny couldn't bear to read anymore, he knew the truth, he knew what killed those people, he remember it as though it had happened mere days ago… The thing that had killed his family, it didn't get what it wanted, so as an act of retribution it burned down his home town and everyone in it. He couldn't believe he'd forgotten about it until now.

"It's the truth, admit it! It's all there, the timing matches perfectly, you've got a motive, all I need now is to know why." said Robin unfolding a map of America the showed numerous red X's across the middle.

Danny felt cold inside, staring down at the map he realized what was going on… Dan knew Danny had retreated west, searched every city for three long years and whenever he came up empty he burned the area down to the ground, killing any and all witnesses; That had to be it, no matter where he ran this nightmare was gonna find him, there was no escaping it…

"What do you have to say for yourself?" said Robin, his tone of voice a mix of hatred and judgement.

Danny collapsed sideward off his chair landing in a heap on the floor, abandoning all traces of self-respect and dignity Danny started crying in the fetal position on the floor, around him the various articles and photos of death and destruction that he'd inavertedly swept off the table fell around him, surrounding him… hovering over him like a vulture, Robin simply shook his head in disgust.

"You're pathetic Fenton, I hope your comfortable down there because you're gonna be here for a long time." Robin turned and left, a little smirk on his face showcased his feeling of triumph.

Danny didn't hear a work of what Robin had said… his brain had systematically shutdown all speaking and listening, breaking him off from the outside world; Danny was a murderer, in running away he'd not only doomed his town, but thousands, possible a whole generation of people to certain death and it wouldn't stop there! Every moment he spent in this place was another person dead.  
So many people were dying and there was nothing he could do about it, he could never escape this cell and even if he could it would only be a matter of time before this creature found him, but if he stayed here then sooner or later Dan would show up and raise the city to the ground… and then what? Hot tears stinging his eyes Danny came to a horrifying realization, he'd singlehandedly condemned this city's people as well as thousands of others to death by hell fire… and he was going to die.

Just like every other moment up until now, the voice in his head returned to torment him at his weakest…

'MY-MY Daniel… giving up so soon? A shame, to think I was looking forward to breaking you. Such a pity, condemning another city's populous to a fiery end… Your becoming more like me all the time… Sit tight Daniel, the mindless drones I enlisted should arrive within the week. They know what to do when they find you.' Dark Danny mocked Danny, laughing at him and worst of all pointing out the obvious, this time Danny didn't argue back, it was true what Dan said… 'You can't escape destiny'

For the first time in Danny Fenton's life… he was well and truly powerless.

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Meanwhile on the opposite side of the two way mirror, in the observation room…

Robin walked in with a smug sense of self satisfaction, so much so that he might have to get away for an hour or so with Starfire so he'd be able to concentrate later; the room, Raven sat in an office chair with wheels, her head in her hands and Beast Boy with his back to the mirror/window… Robin looked at Raven then at Beast Boy, the look in his eyes told Beast boy it'd be better if he left.

"Uhh, I'm gonna go play video games with Wally, or… anything less depressing than this. Call me if you need anything." said Beast Boy darting down the hall at a swift pace.

Once Robin was sure he was gone, he turned his attention to Raven, "What's the matter with you?" he asked, not meaning for it to come out as hostile as it did.

Raven looked up at Robin with a glum expression on her face "You wouldn't understand."

"Yeah well can you drop the attitude for now? I need you in there to probe Fenton's mind." said Robin pointing a finger at Raven, like a dad attempting to discipline a child.

Raven stood up and slapped his hand away "I thought I was clear, I'm don't want anything to do with this, what part of that can't you understand." said Raven, angered by her leaders disregard toward her feelings.

"If I had to be honest, I'd say, the part where you'd actually want to help that murderous dirt bag!" said Robin taken aback by Ravens defiance.

Now Raven was mad, she knew for a fact that Robin had no real care towards what she thought, as long as he got what he wanted…  
"Listen Robin! You've been walking a very thin line with me lately, for starters you're keeping something secret from the rest of us, something to do with that guy in there, and then you ask me to probe his mind, which you know I don't like to do and then you don't tell me what to look for."

"Hey despite what you may think of me, what I'm doing, the secrets I'm keeping, it's all for the good of the team! And as for his mind, I just want you to look around in there and bring back any secrets you find to me!" said Robin grabbing both Ravens arms and pulling her in close.

"I've told you already, his mind is badly fractured, if I'm not careful with my magic I could end up killing him." Said Raven, more nervous than angry at this point.

"… Robin, what's happening to us?" said Raven, sinking to her knees as she rubbed her bruised wrists.

"… Comes with the job Raven. What you think of me isn't important right now; all you need to know is that guy in there is a cold blooded killer, who's escaped punishment for nearly three years. I just need someone else to confirm my suspicions. Go in there, find what you can, and we'll see him face justice for the families of everyone he's hurt." Robin reached over to the control console for the interrogation room and took hold of the temperature control dial, turning it to the left he watched as the temperate number near the dial began to drop rapidly 'That ought to get him talking' thought Robin as he turned and left the room, leaving the sad witch sitting there on the cold floor to contemplate on her now rather scary friends words.

 **A/N: Yadda, yadda, yadda… Reviews please.**


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